The present invention relates to label printers and particularly to a printer which facilitates the use of paper or stock of the type on which labels are printed (so called plain stock) as well as paper or stock which may carry labels which are adhesivably removably connected and are peelable from the liner of the stock (so called linered stock). The stock may also be a continuous web which has peelable labels only in parts thereof and a printer embodying the invention may be readily switched over to handle different parts of the web.
Heretofore it was necessary to rethread the stock in the printer, when linered stock is used, so as to enable the labels to be peeled from the stock by providing a feed path around a peeler bar (which may be a bar or rod which extends across the width of the stock). The present invention provides an improved mechanism for changing the path of the stock so that it passes over the peeler bar when plain stock without peelable labels is used, and when linered stock is used, wraps the stock around the peeler bar while maintaining the tension in the stock so as to facilitate the removal of the labels from the liner and directing the liner out of the printer for disposal. The invention has as its principal feature facilitating and simplifying the use of the printer by enabling it to be used with either linered or plain stock.
Briefly described, the invention is incorporated in a printer having a print head which bears against a platen roller which drives the stock out of an opening in the printer housing over a peeler bar which is disposed in the path of the stock as it leaves the print head. The peeler bar is adjacent to the surface of the platen roller, while being spaced downstream of the platen roller. A bail carrying a roller is pivotally mounted for movement about an axis over the path of the stock and between a first position where the roller is spaced above the path of the stock, and a second position where the roller mounted on the bail is in contact with the surface of the platen roller. The roller moves across the path of the stock and wraps the stock around the peeler bar when in the second position. In the second position the labels are peeled off the liner of the stock as the stock is driven over the peeler bar. The stock does not have to be threaded around the roller. The stock need not be rethreaded to handle linered stock. Tension is maintained in the stock because of the driving engagement thereof between the platen roller and the roller on the bail. A latching mechanism, preferably a hairpin over center spring connected to the bail and to the housing frame, latches the bail in either of its positions to which the bail may be manually pivoted by the user.